


Redoubt - The McGee Way

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [998]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 15:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13057236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Tim is arrested for hacking the pentagon. What will the team to do? How will his new relationship with Tony factor in? Oh and Gibbs is away while all of this happens.





	Redoubt - The McGee Way

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [NCIS_Prompts_2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017) collection. 



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 1/23/2002 for the word [redoubt](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/01/23/redoubt).
> 
> redoubt  
> A small and usually temporary defensive fortification.  
> A defended position or protective barrier.  
> A secure place of refuge or defense; a stronghold.
> 
> This is for someone who decided to prompt me anonymously. I hope whoever they are enjoys this. I'm not sure if this was really what they were going for or not.
> 
> **Prompt:**
> 
> McGee is finally caught hacking and is arrested, how does the team react? Will they be able to save him?
> 
> **End Prompt**
> 
> As always comments, kudos, and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated.

# 

Redoubt - The McGee Way

Tony groaned as Fornell walked into the NCIS Headquarters. “Whatever happened, I didn’t do it.”

“For once, we’re not here to arrest you, DiNoetzo.” Fornell snarked back as he stepped up to McGee’s desk. Agent Sacks quickly slapped handcuffs on McGee and the FBI agents moved to leave.

“Wait. What?” Tony demanded. “Where are you taking McGee? What’s he charged with?”

“My director is notifying your director as we speak DiNoetzo.”

Tony glared. This wasn’t going to be good. He’d already lost McGee on the first day of being in charge while Gibbs was out of town for some political thing. 

Gibbs was going to kill him when he got back if Tony didn’t get this fixed now. Bishop looked back and forth between Tony, McGee, and the departing FBI agents confused as to what was going on. She jumped to her feet when Tony jerked his head in the direction of Vance’s office. 

Tony hated leaving Tim with the FBI agents. He tried to catch his eye and express his apologies with his eyes. Tim was getting better at reading Tony, but he still missed a lot. 

Tony just hoped that McGee had understood as Tony headed up to Vance’s office, followed closely by Bishop. Tony had just recently started a relationship with Tim and didn’t want the younger man to think that Tony was abandoning him or anything like that. He hoped that Tim knew that he was going to do his very best to see Tim released no matter what the charges.

Vance sighed as Tony and Bishop entered his office. He’d known, of course, as soon as the Director of the FBI had informed him of the charges that he could expect a visit from his agents. He supposed he should be glad that Gibbs wasn’t here. That would be even worse.

“It appears that Agent McGee has been accused of unauthorized hacking.”

“What? McGee would never.” Tony protested.

Vance silenced Tony with a look. “I know very well that your cases with and without Gibbs sometimes hover on the edge of legality as far as Tim’s hacking is concerned. Normally, I as the Director of the agency would take the blame and it wouldn’t be a big deal, but this isn’t a normal accusation.”

Tony and Bishop exchanged glances and concerned looks before they turned back to Vance to get the full details.

“This time there is no way that McGee’s hacking could be associated with the agency as he and the rest of the team were on vacation at the time.”

Tony gulped. If they were on vacation that meant that Tim had hacked something while they were together. Tim hadn’t had time to do anything of the sort. Tony was almost certain Tim was being framed though he didn’t know why. 

Still Tony couldn’t very well vouch for Tim without repercussions. He’d have to explain their relationship which while not against regs was highly frowned upon. Even doing that he likely wouldn’t be believed. 

Not only had he had his own run ins with the FBI, but vouching for Tim would look like a lover vouching for their lover. It would be circumstantial at best and highly suspicious at worst. No, the best thing he could do was to prove that someone else did the hacking Tim was being accused of.

“What information do we have to work with? I don’t believe McGee did this and I’m not going to let you or anyone else just hang him out to dry, Director.” Tony glared fiercely at Vance.

Vance almost chuckled. DiNozzo had always been a spitfire and Vance hadn’t expected him to go down without a fight. Though he’d not been sure that DiNozzo would stand up for McGee given that he was only acting Team Lead while Gibbs was gone.

Vance still didn’t have a good feel for DiNozzo as an agent. He knew Gibbs depended on him, but Vance had mostly seen him goofing off and figured with Gibbs gone that DiNozzo would show his true colors. He just hadn’t expected them to include such loyalty. Still he couldn’t help but be impressed with DiNozzo’s spunk and drive.

While Vance didn’t want McGee going down for something he didn’t do, he also couldn’t condone illegal hacking. He was glad DiNozzo was willing to take the lead. Vance couldn’t let it look like he had any favoritism going on.

“I only have the bare bones, right now, from the Director of the FBI, but he assured me that his men would be bringing us the files they had on this as well as the proof they had that McGee did it as opposed to another hacker.”

Tony nodded his head to Vance in understanding. “Will we be allowed to talk to McGee?”

“I’ll set something up. For now, McGee is accused of hacking the Pentagon on October 10th. Go see what you can figure out. Hopefully we can see McGee tomorrow and he can have visitors soon.”

Tony exchanged looks with Bishop and they both left Vance’s office. They had a lot of research and thinking to do. 

“Do you think Vance knows?” Bishop whispered.

Tony shook his head. While McGee and Tony had confessed to Bishop and Gibbs that they were dating, he was pretty sure that this wasn’t related to that as Vance would have taken him to task if that were all this was about. Tony still wasn’t sure about how Gibbs felt about McGee and him dating, but Gibbs hadn’t kicked either of them off the team, so Tony knew that Gibbs would rather deal with their relationship than to lose either of them.

No. There was more to this situation than met the eye. Tony could feel it in his gut. 

Someone had it out for McGee. He just wished he knew why. He couldn't help wondering at the timing. It seemed suspicious that this happened the one week Gibbs was out of pocket as well. 

Tony could hear Bishop typing away at her keyboard undoubtedly trying to figure out what exactly McGee or anyone had hacked the pentagon for. It would be a lot easier to figure out who was behind this if they knew what information the person had retrieved. Tony assumed that whoever had framed McGee had succeeded in gathering the information they were after.

If they hadn't, it would be a completely different ballgame. They needed to work this case from both angles, but the first one would be to figure out the information lost if any. After all, they could be looking at a terrorist attack here. 

Tony hated it. He wanted nothing more than to run to McGee and assure him that they were doing their very best to get him out, but the fact was the FBI wasn't going to put him in with any hardened criminals just yet. Tim had time.

Time the nation would not have if whatever information retrieved was harmful to national security. Therefore as much as Tony hated it, they had to focus on the information lost and preventing any damage or attacks that could be done with that information. Shaking his head, he started his own searches.

Neither Bishop nor he were as good with computers as McGee was, but they'd have to make do for now. The only other person who might be able to help was Abby. Wait, Abby.

Had anyone informed Abby that McGee had been arrested? She was going to go ballistic when she found out. Tony shook his head, shoring up his courage and grabbing some Caf-Pow as a bribe, and headed down to face Abby.

He didn't know what her caseload was like and he didn't want to get her in trouble with Vance, so he'd only tell her the bare minimum. Bishop and Tony would have to prove McGee's innocence on their own. At least, that's what Tony expected, but Abby had surprised him in the past, so only time would tell.

Slipping into the lab, Tony set a Caf-Pow down on the counter near Abby. He knew better than to interrupt her when she was busy. The Caf-Pow would attract her attention and she'd turn her attention to him as soon as she had a chance.

It wasn't long at all before Abby had finished entering in her latest lab results and grabbed the Caf-Pow. "What's up, Tony?" Abby assumed he was here on a social call as she didn't have any cases for him currently.

"I don't want you to freak out."

"You not wanting me to freak out is freaking me out. Just spit it out." Abby's eyes narrowed in concentration, concerned.

Tony wished he had a redoubt to hide behind. He had a feeling that this wasn't going to go well. Actually, he'd known that before he headed down to talk to Abby. 

Now, he felt that it was going to go worse than he'd originally expected. Still he was already freaking Abby out. Better to just get it over with. "McGee's been arrested."

"Timmy? What? Why would Timmy be arrested? He's never done anything wrong." Abby clutched at Tony as if begging him to tell her he was joking.

"I know Abbs. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on. The FBI is claiming that he hacked the pentagon."

"What? Timmy would never. You can't let them do this to him."

"I'm working on it, Abbs. Bishop and I are doing everything we can."

"I want to help, but Munoz' team has a case."

"I know, Abbs. It's fine. You just focus on your job and your Caf-Pow and Bishop and I will figure out what's really going on with McGee.”

Abby shook her finger at Tony, "You better, mister."

Tony just flashed her one of his trademark grins and returned upstairs. "Anything, yet, Bishop?"

"Not, yet. I'm still looking, though. It will be easier once we have the information from the FBI."

"Let me call Fornell and see what he knows. Vance is working it at the top level, but that doesn't mean we can't ask at the lower level and see if we can get the information faster." Tony murmured.

He picked up the phone to call Fornell when it rang in his hands. He cursed as he saw Gibbs name on the caller id. "Gibbs." Tony greeted.

"DiNozzo, how are things going?"

Tony cringed. "Everything is fine. I've got it all under control."

If Gibbs were there, he would have given DiNozzo one of his famous glares. He could hear the stress in DiNozzo's voice. "What's wrong?"

Tony flinched. He hated how easily Gibbs read him at times. "Nothing, boss. Really."

Gibbs hated when DiNozzo lied to him. "The truth, DiNozzo," Gibbs growled.

Tony gave up. "McGee's been arrested, Boss."

"What?" Gibbs snarled.

"Don't worry I have it under control."

"If it were under control, McGee wouldn't be arrested." Gibbs barked.

Tony couldn't deny that, but they were doing their best and would get it figured out. "Bishop and I are doing everything we can, Boss."

"Keep me updated," Gibbs growled, snapping his cellphone shut.

Tony sighed and closed his phone, staring at the screen blankly before flipping it open to call Fornell. 

"Fornell." 

"When are we going to get copies of McGee's charges? Your director told ours that we would get them." 

"I'll send Sacks over with them."

"Not Agent Slacks. He'll take forever to get here."

Fornell sighed. "Fine. I'll send someone else. You should have them in 20 minutes at the most."

"Thanks, Fornell."

"I don't want Gibbs on my ass anymore than you do, DiNoetzo."

Tony chuckled and hung up the phone. Sometimes it paid to have a bastard of a boss. This case would be tricky enough without the FBI stonewalling them. 

After all, how do you prove someone else hacked the pentagon without hacking them back. Tony started pulling up a list of people that might have a grudge against McGee. It seemed like a long shot as most of the people who would have a grudge against McGee wouldn't have the skills to hack the pentagon. 

Tony wondered if he should try to visit Tim tonight. Vance had said that he'd see about getting them visitation rights for the morning, but Tony didn't want to wait. Tim was his boyfriend. 

He wanted to see him tonight. He just hoped that by the time he was ready to see McGee that he had better news. Right now, even though he suspected that McGee had been framed, he had no proof.

The best he could tell Tim is that he was working on it, but he needed something better for both Tim and Gibbs. He knew Gibbs would have his head if they hadn't made great progress on getting McGee released by the time Gibbs got back. Vance said that people like McGee were the future of the agency, but he wasn't doing anything to back up his future agents.

Is this what they could expect from the agency in the future? No loyalty? Tony didn't want to work for an agency that had no loyalty to its agents. 

Who would? Only the desperate worked for someone that they knew would leave them out to dry for simply doing their job. Either that or the pay more than made up for the risk, which definitely wasn't the case with a government job.

Bishop continued to use her NSA connections to try and chase down any inconsistencies that happened on October 10th. She hoped that there would be something that they could work with to prove McGee's innocence. Then she realized she could pull McGee's cellphone records and computer records. 

If he was nowhere near the IP that hacked the pentagon that would provide some proof. There was still IP spoofing that could have been done, but she wasn't worried about that so much. With the origination point for anything McGee could have actually done, they could trace it through any IP spoofing to prove whether it was or wasn't him.

Still she breathed a sigh of relief when the FBI finally delivered the proof they had that McGee had hacked the pentagon. It would be a lot easier to figure out what was going on if they knew what they were working against. Together DiNozzo and Bishop put their heads together over the files the FBI provided. 

Bishop turned page after page of the FBI's documentation and proof that McGee had hacked the pentagon. By the end she was practically flinching with each page turn. This was not looking good for McGee. She'd believe that McGee did it with this evidence too. 

"Don't lose faith, Bishop. McGee didn't do this."

"How do you know?"

"I just do." Tony didn't want to say anything further in the middle of the bullpen.

"Oh," Bishop breathed as understanding dawned. "Don't worry. We'll figure this out, Tony."

With the information that Tony provided, Bishop returned to her searches on McGee's cellphone location and computer location. That's when she realized that McGee's cellphone and computer were in two different locations. 

"Did McGee leave his computer at work that week?"

"Yeah, but it would have been password protected."

"Did he take his personal computer with him?"

"Of course. That way he could remote in if needed. Though I'm pretty sure he never did. I'm not even sure that he turned his personal computer on during that whole week.”

"We need to get McGee's computer down to Abby. It's now evidence."

"We're trying to prove McGee's innocence, here."

"I know. His computer here at work hacked the pentagon on October 10th according to what the FBI has, but he was nowhere near his computer according to his phone records. I'm hoping Abby can find proof that someone else logged on to McGee's PC."

"Good plan. I'll continue researching other options for proving McGee's innocence."

Bishop nodded, grabbing McGee's computer and heading downstairs to have Abby check it into evidence. 

"Bishop!" Abby exclaimed, bouncing excitedly to hug Bishop.

Bishop smimaced. That is she grimaced and smiled at the same time. She didn't have enough hands for an Abby hug. "Abby!"

Abby pulled back, hurt. "What?"

"We need you to thoroughly check out McGee's laptop. Someone used it to hack the pentagon on October 10th and we need you to find something to prove it wasn't McGee."

"I'm on it!" Abby pulled out an evidence form and signed McGee's laptop into evidence.

Bishop left Abby's lab and headed back upstairs. There was more to do to prove McGee's innocence. This would all be a lot easier if McGee were available to help. 

McGee, meanwhile, had been shoved into a tiny cell that didn't even have room for him to stretch out his arms to the side. They had read him his charges as they loaded him into the FBI vehicle, so he knew what he was being charged with. He insisted that he was innocent, but no one was listening to him. 

He hadn't seen hide nor hair of anyone, since he'd been shoved into this cell that was smaller than his closet. He worried that he'd be stuck here for a while. He had hoped to see Tony at the very least.

Surely dating Tony should have some privileges. He knew Tony would be trying to get him out, but he felt so alone here. He needed some human contact.

The FBI ignored him. He was alone in this cell as no other person could possibly fit in here. It had been 5 hours and he hadn't even seen an evening meal.

He couldn't help wondering if things could get worse. Unfortunately for him, they could get worse as Agent Slacks grabbed him and tossed him into an interrogation room. "What's going on?"

"Shut up." Agent Sacks glared as he left the room.

McGee sighed and settled into wait. He couldn't help freaking out and feeling like he was alone in the world. They left him alone for so long that he startled when the door opened and Fornell tossed his file onto the table.

He had hoped that Fornell being Gibbs’ friend would go easy on him, but no they started grilling him. It didn't seem to matter how many times he told them that he had been on vacation and nowhere near his computer. They still believed that he had hacked the pentagon.

McGee demanded to see his computer, so that he could prove it wasn't him. 

"Your computer is in evidence." Agent Sacks sneered.

Neither FBI agent bothered to mention that they hadn't collected it and that it was in NCIS evidence. Fornell had been pissed to find out that NCIS had beat them to the punch on that evidence. McGee shot Fornell a pleading look, hoping that he would do something to help McGee out.

Fornell just shook his head. He couldn't very well tell McGee what was going on. He couldn't even tell DiNozzo what was going on. 

Fornell was glad that Gibbs was out of town because he would have told Gibbs and that might have cost him his job. Somebody high up on the food chain really wanted McGee to pay. Fornell was doing everything he could to figure out what was really going on.

McGee didn't act like he was guilty. In fact, Fornell believed McGee when he said he was on vacation, but he couldn't just let McGee go. Not until McGee had been proven innocent or the high level person after McGee's head had been proven to be dirty.

McGee sighed as he was led back to his tiny cell. Was this how he would spend the rest of his life? The FBI weren't listening, not even Fornell who was Gibbs' friend. 

He hadn't seen anyone from NCIS since being placed into his tiny cell. Had NCIS given up on him? McGee curled up in his cell, wrapping his arms around his legs, completely alone as a tear trickled down his face.

Tony slammed his hand on his desk in frustration, unconsciously mimicking Gibbs. They were being blocked at every turn. He'd tried to get in to see McGee and had been denied.

Even calling on Gibbs' friendship with Fornell hadn't worked. There was something beyond hinky going on here. He knew McGee hadn't done it, but still he couldn't prove it. 

Somebody had gone to a lot of trouble making it look like McGee had done it. Even Abby wasn't having any luck with McGee's computer. She knew it wasn't McGee, but all evidence on his computer pointed otherwise.

Tony and Bishop had finally fallen asleep in their chairs. Ducky had draped blankets over them to keep them warm as he headed home. Now, Tuesday rolled around and Tony blinked awake with papers stuck to his cheek and a blanket around him. 

Tony quickly grabbed a change of clothes and went to change. It was weird to wake up without McGee. It wasn't uncommon for them to sleep at work, but with his desk right across from McGee he usually woke to McGee's face. When they didn't spend the night at work, they often spent the night together in bed at one of their places.

The lack of McGee only made him even more determined to prove McGee's innocence. He planned to check in with Vance and see if Vance had gotten them an appointment to see McGee. He hoped that they'd be able to see McGee today. 

After dressing and splashing his face with water and cleaning as much as he could, he returned to his desk. Typing away, he tried to find something to help McGee while waiting for Vance to come in. He left Bishop to sleep. 

They'd been at it all night and hadn't found anything. Bishop being up now wouldn't help anything and if the extra sleep helped her find something to help McGee it would be all for the better. Tony tried to channel his frustration back into his work, but it was hard when literally everything they tried only led to another dead end.

After Vance arrived, Tony gave him at most ten minutes to settle in. Anxious to see McGee, he woke Bishop and together they headed up to Vance's office. Well Vance got longer than ten minutes, but that was only because Bishop insisted on getting dressed before meeting Vance.

The secretary gestured for them to go in and Tony moved swiftly to the door, Bishop trailing behind him. Vance gestured for them to take a seat. Bishop took him up on the offer, but Tony preferred to stand. He had too much energy from his worry over McGee to sit still. 

"How's the case going?" Vance prompted. 

"Dead ends in every direction. We have proof that McGee was nowhere near his computer due to his phone records, but everything else is pointing to McGee having done it. Abby's still working on his computer, but something smells fishy."

Vance nodded his thanks for the update. "I've gotten some more information from the Director of the FBI, but it's not looking good for McGee."

"Were you able to get us in to see McGee?" Tony interrupted.

"No. The FBI Director is being cagey. I'm still working on that, but I haven't been able to nail down a time anywhere for a visit with McGee."

Tony slumped. "Time for plan B then."

"Plan B, DiNozzo?"

"It's time to call in the lawyers. They can't deny McGee a visit with his lawyer."

Vance nodded. "Be careful."

Tony nodded. Bishop and Tony quickly left the room to prepare.

"Are we really going to bring in a lawyer?" Bishop couldn't help asking. She knew how Gibbs felt about lawyers.

"Sometimes you have no choice, Bishop. I have an old college friend who is a lawyer. I'll see if I can call in a favor and get him to see McGee and deliver a message to McGee."

“Would the lawyer be able to get us in to see McGee?”

“Possibly, but let's save that as a last resort for if Vance can't come through.”

Bishop nodded and returned to her desk. Tony called up his college buddy, quickly explaining what he needed and asking his buddy to meet him at a nearby restaurant before going to see McGee. Fortunately, his buddy agreed and they made plans to meet later that afternoon.

Tony sent Bishop down to help Abby with whatever she needed in hopes of Abby finding some proof that it wasn't McGee faster. Meanwhile Tony kicked off a few searches of his own that he hoped would lead to results before heading to the restaurant to meet with his lawyer friend.

After explaining the full situation to his friend, he asked his friend to be McGee’s lawyer and to give McGee the message that they were working on freeing him and that Tony loved him and missed him. His friend teased him about dating a criminal, but agree to pass the message and take on McGee’s case. Tony thanked him and headed back to work. 

Tony’s lawyer friend headed over to the FBI headquarters where he’d found out McGee was being kept. After much fighting, he finally managed to be allowed to see McGee. They settled him in an interrogation room while some FBI agents went to fetch McGee from his holding cell.

“You have a visitor. Come with us.” The FBI agent ordered McGee, snapping cuffs on him. 

“What?” Tim stumbled as he was shoved out of his tiny cell and lead to an interrogation room.

“In there.” The FBI agent ordered.

McGee stared confused at the man in the interrogation room. He wasn’t dressed like an FBI agent, but McGee didn’t recognize him either. The lawyer gestured for the handcuffs to be removed and the FBI agent removed them before leaving and closing the door.

“Agent McGee, my name is Steve Adler. I’m a friend of Tony’s and also your attorney.”

“Thank God.” McGee hoped that meant he’d be released soon.

“Tony wanted me to let you know that he loves you and misses you and that they’re still working on freeing you.”

“I can’t go home?”

“Not yet. Sorry. I’ll do what I can to help. What can you tell me?”

McGee told him everything he knew which wasn’t much. 

As they were finishing up Steve added, “It’s not looking good unless we can find more evidence, but we’re doing everything we can.”

McGee nodded and then frowned at the mention of needing additional information. “Steve!” McGee called as the lawyer headed for the door.

“Yes?” Steve turned back.

“Can you get a message to Tony?” 

“Of course.” 

“Tell him to have Abby check the black box and that I miss him.” McGee whispered urgently.

“Will do. Sorry, I couldn’t do more.”

“Thanks for doing what you have. You’ve given me hope, at least.”

McGee didn’t even protest when the FBI agents escorted him back to his cell. Steve waited until he was clear from FBI headquarters and in his car and driving before calling Tony.

“Tony.”

“He misses you too and wants Abby to check the black box.” Steve informed.

“The black box?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Ok. Thanks. Let me know if you need anything lawyer wise for him.”

“Will do, but for the most part there’s not much I can do until you guys prove his innocence or we have a court date. I’m pushing for a bail hearing to be held soon, but the FBI really has the paperwork for this all tied up.”

“Thanks Steve.”

Steve hung up and returned to his regular job as a lawyer. This wasn’t the only case he was working on. Meanwhile, Tony rushed downstairs to Abby’s lab where Abby and Bishop were.

“We still don’t have anything new to report, Tony.” Bishop offered as soon as Tony entered the lab.

“My lawyer friend was able to get in to see McGee and passed a message back. Abby, McGee said to check the black box. Does that mean anything to you?”

“No.” Abby frowned trying to think what black box McGee could be thinking about. 

“I’m sure it’s got something to do with finding evidence to prove McGee’s innocence. Work on it, you two. Maybe together you can figure something out. I need to follow up on some other leads.” Tony headed back upstairs. 

First, he checked his searches to see what had come back. He was happy to see that one of them had a hit. He now had a name, Senator Chen.

“Abby, I need you to find all the information you can on Senator Chen and any less than legal dealings that she may be doing.”

“On it.” 

Tony started calling some of his contacts in other agencies to see if he could find out what the link was between Senator Chen and McGee. The Senator may have been the one financing the attack on McGee, though Tony couldn’t prove that just yet, but there had to be a reason. Tony would find that and hopefully Abby would find the proof they needed that McGee was innocent.

After searching for hours, Tony was no closer to finding the link between Senator Chen and McGee. Needing a break, Tony headed down to Abby’s lab to see if Bishop and Abby had made any progress.

“Tony, Tony, Tony.” Abby bounced excitedly as Tony entered the lab.

“What have you got, Abbs?”

“We figured out what McGee meant by black box.”

“He had some software installed on his laptop called black box.” Bishop continued.

“It only showed up in the task manager. So we never would have noticed if not for his clue.”

“Ok. Did it give us anything?”

“Yes.” Abby’s pigtails bopped along with her hyper movements. “There’s so much information. Most of it doesn’t matter though as it’s mostly McGee’s normal stuff, but it also caught all of the impersonator’s stuff too. We can prove it wasn’t McGee now.”

“Good enough for a court?” Tony didn’t want to get his hopes up. He knew this was high level and that circumstantial wasn’t going to cut it if they wanted to get to the bottom of this.

Abby deflated a bit, “No.” She frowned.

Tony contemplated for a bit himself and then remembered about Senator Chen. “What about Senator Chen? What did you find out on her?”

Abby thought for a minute. “Oh!” She turned around and brought the information up onto her screen. “See for yourself. I haven’t had a chance to go through it, yet, but it’s all there.”

Tony skimmed the information showing on the screen. “There.” He pointed to her dependent’s information. “John Benedict. Why does that name sound familiar?”

Abby ran a quick search on the name in the NCIS database. “Because he’s the cop that McGee killed.”

“That must be our link. Senator Chen must have changed her name, so that we wouldn’t link John Benedict with her. She must be out for revenge over her son’s death. Abby, work on tying that information to the impersonator information the black box found for us.”

“Bishop with me. We need to get the director involved and get a warrant to search Senator Chen’s office and home and any other places she owns. Get started on the warrant and locating any other properties that may be hers under Chen or Benedict and include them on the warrant. I’ll explain everything to Vance.”

Bishop nodded and moved to her desk to do what Tony ordered. Tony continued on up to the director’s office. He knocked on the door as the secretary was not around.

“Come in.” Vance’s voice reverberated through the door. 

Tony opened the door and gave a quick sitrep. 

Vance nodded after DiNozzo finished. “Good work, Agent DiNozzo. Keep me in the loop.”

“Of course, Director.” Tony agreed. 

“What have you got for me, Bishop?” Tony called out as he walked down the stairs.

“Got your warrant.” Bishop waved the piece of paper.

“Great. Let’s go see what incriminating evidence we can find.”

They started with the more obscure properties and quickly hit pay dirt. 

“Let’s bag everything.” Tony ordered, gesturing the team to spread out, realizing they had more evidence here than they knew what to do with it.

After they wrapped up all the evidence, Tony and Bishop volunteered to take it back while the other team that had come with them moved on to the other locations to see if there was anymore stuff to find. After Tony and Bishop arrived back at NCIS HQ, Tony quickly headed up to give Vance an update. Vance told Tony to have Balboa’s team go backup the team out in the field.

Tony nodded and returned to check the evidence in. They needed to get this processed as quickly as possible so that they could round up everyone involved and get McGee freed. Wanting to free McGee as soon as possible and knowing Fornell would be straight with him, Tony called Fornell and told him that they had some information for him at NCIS HQ.

By the time Fornell managed to sneak away from the FBI to see what NCIS had, all the teams had returned and they were all gathered in MTAC for a secure briefing. One of the security team escorted Fornell up to MTAC. Vance stopped the MTAC feed before they let Fornell in.

“Glad you could join us, Fornell. We’re currently trying to determine how far this corruption goes.” Vance gave a quick overview of what Fornell missed and then continued with the briefing. 

Once everyone had all the information, they started planning how they were going to gather up everyone involved without anyone escaping. Fornell got involved and included the few higher level people at the FBI that he knew wouldn’t be involved with Senator Chen. Together NCIS and FBI succeeded in rounding up everyone including Senator Chen.

Tony went with Fornell to release McGee. Everyone else had been arrested and they had all the evidence, so McGee had been proven innocent and could be released. This had resulted in a very wide spread cleaning of a number of governmental agencies.

“McGeek, you’re free again.” Tony announced happily as he Fornell unlocked McGee’s cell.

“Tony!” McGee greeted. “I was beginning to think that Abby hadn’t understood my clue.”

“We had a lot of work to do before we could get you free even once Abby figured it out, sorry.”

“No worries. I’m just glad it’s over.”

“Me too. Let’s go home, Tim.” Tony was also glad that they’d wrapped everything up before Gibbs got back. Hopefully, Gibbs wouldn’t rake him over the coals too badly when he returned. For now, though, he was just happy to reunite with Tim and enjoy spending time with his boyfriend again.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I'm looking for a writing buddy. Full details are [here](https://cutsycat.livejournal.com/53610.html). It is friends locked, so you'll have to add me as a friend on lj before you can read it. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them.
> 
>  **Warning! Warning! 2017 ends in only a month! When 2017 ends, the 2017 prompt collection will close.** You have 50 prompts you can use for 2017. Use them up before they go away. Prompts are currently open. If you'd like to prompt me, please do so [here](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/NCIS_Prompts_2017/profile). Note you have to be an ao3 member to do this. 
> 
> When 2018 starts, I will open a 2018 Prompt collection. In fact, I have already created the 2018 Prompt collection [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile), but sign ups are closed until 2018, so you won't be able to sign up and prompt me on this collection, yet. The 2017 prompts continue to remain over for you to prompt me with until the end of the year.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes.
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback here if you think something could be improved(either in the prompt process or the story itself).


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